October 29, 2006

Of sketches, Hugh Laurie and 'SNL'

There was an unexpected, inspired moment during this weekend’s edition of "Saturday Night Live."

The musical guest was Beck, whose band, during the second musical number, sat at a table set with plates, glasses and silverware. Pounding on the table and using dinnerware as percussion, the band did an entrancing version of the song “Clap Hands” while Beck played a small brown guitar. Puppets at the side of the stage played along on a tiny table of their own.

As for the rest of the show, well, I’ll be kind to host Hugh Laurie. Laurie’s no stranger to comedy - in fact, the “House” star’s career in England was largely built on his work in the classic “Blackadder” series and other British comedies. Always the trouper, Laurie brought a deftness and game energy to the skits in which he performed.

In his witty monologue, Laurie promised plenty of English “humour”: “When I say humour, I mean overly elaborate puns that may take you days to understand, with very little payoff.” There would be many skits about bad teeth, plus copious rain and the saying of “by Jove” and “jolly good.”

That didn’t turn out to be quite true. Not only were there no “by Jove” moments, there wasn’t even a sketch parodying “House,” which, despite the fact that it’s one of the best programs on TV, presents plenty of juicy opportunities for satire.

Even a moderate fan of “House” could have come up with a scenario in which cranky House made withering comments while Dr. Cameron made googly eyes at him and Dr. Cuddy marched in wearing a low-cut blouse and telling House “No!” every time he opened his mouth.

Maybe Laurie didn’t want to do a “House” sketch, but it was a glaring missed opportunity. And it’s not as though anything else on the program was any better than even a moderately inspired “House” parody would have been.

The only real high points of the broadcast were Laurie’s monologue, a funny folk-song parody performed by the host, Beck’s music and an opening skit starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Kazakhstan’s roving reporter, Borat, who promoted his upcoming film with some rude and fairly funny jokes. (Executive producer Lorne Michaels explained in the show’s first minutes that NBC budget cuts had forced him to sell portions of “SNL” to foreign governments.)

Do you notice a pattern there? None of the even mildly memorable moments of the broadcast came from the show’s regular cast, which recently survived a round of budget cuts that reduced the roster of players to 11.

Perhaps more budget cuts are in order. Quick: Name a sketch Jason Sudeikis has been in. Yeah, I can’t either.

The mostly tepid remaining “Saturday Night Live” cast does have some standout performers: Amy Poehler is wonderful even in sub-par sketches, and her recent Nancy Grace imitation captured that anchor’s condescending monstrousness perfectly. Fred Armisen is also a freakishly good mimic, as an “Ugly Betty” parody a couple of weeks ago proved. The underused Kenan Thompson and Maya Rudolph always put a twist on the delivery of their lines that makes the material better than it is on the page.

Though Darrell Hammond is rock-solid -- to the extent that next week’s episode is a “best-of” compilation of Hammond’s work -- his Bill Clinton and Chris Matthews imitations, while spot-on, feel shopworn thanks to overuse.

The fact is, the “Get a Mac” commercial that aired in the first half of the broadcast, in which the feuding Mac and PC characters got couples’ counseling, was funnier than any of the skits that aired Saturday. As for the show itself, the very first sketch of the night involved the repeated broadcast of a fart -- and I mean repeated many, many times. It was a depressing indication of where the writers’ ambitions lay.

At least Tina Fey had the good sense to leave the show after last season (and boy, does “Weekend Update” miss her. It’s astonishing that the week before the mid-term elections, the show’s political humor, in “Update” and the rest of the show, was so toothless and predictable).

“30 Rock,” Fey’s new sitcom, and “Studio 60,” both of which concern sketch-comedy shows and both of which are struggling creatively and in the ratings, have amply demonstrated that the creation of skits is just not that interesting, at least as depicted on TV.

We saw no such memorable characters on Saturday night. Competent imitations of famous people, jokes about flatulence, tired stereotypes (via a pair of tracksuit-clad, gay New Jersey wiseguys during a “Weekend Update” segment) and Hugh Laurie in a dress (an aside; the man has killer gams) do not great comedy make. And Will Forte’s unfunny contribution to “Update,” in the guise of a frightened politician, stopped the broadcast cold.

The ambition of those behind the current version of “Saturday Night Live” appears to be: Let’s fill out the 90 minutes somehow and get to the afterparty. It’s too bad some talented performers are trapped in this bland, predictable muddle.

Comments

The Borat opening was hysterically funny!
The rest of the show was godawfulbad beyond belief!
Since Fox News is reporting that "Studio 60" is about to be canned, why not throw us a bone and dump SNL at the same time? NBC could then use the time for real, cutting edge quality, repeats, oops, I mean encore presentations of "Deal Or No Deal". Just think of the money NBC will save, no salaries to that huge cast & crew, all the network has to pay for that are an extra case of anti-bacterial wipes and Purell dispensers for Howie Mandel!
Weekend Update was just not funny. Well, it was funnier than "20 Good Years", but then "Jericho" is also funnier that that dismal mess!
This was the first time I've watched an entire SNL in a few years, is it so hard to find a few good comedy writers in a nation of 300 million?
SNL is to comedy as Kevin Federline is to good music!

Clearly Maureen Ryan is too old to be watching SNL. Will Forte unfunny? Are you insane? He's one of the most inspired comedic actors working today. And to not recognize that SNL is better for being free from the clutches of Tina Fey is just being uninformed. Don't let the glasses fool you. She's not that smart. Her pop-culture obsessions (The View, American Idol) are gone and actual political observations are being made again. There is much more intelligence in the writing under new head writer Seth Meyers, who is also a huge improvement over Fey behind the Update desk. There may have been a fart sketch, but I defy you to find a more elegantly handled fart sketch. And Ryan's suggestion for a "House" parody sounds like sour grapes from someone who applied to SNL as a sketch writer and was rejected.

Couldn't agree more! The things your wrote here are the same as the thoughts I had while watching it. I used to stay up at least to catch Weekend Update. I realized now that I am better off staying up on Friday's to watch Bill Maher, and calling it an early night on Saturday.

SNL seems like it is being written by a bunch of high schoolers. My DVR is set to record it each week because I have hope that one of these weekends it will be good. Out of all of the shows this season, this past Saturday was the best. That is not saying very much at all though because the show is terrible. It has not been good since the 2004 election shows.

I couldn't agree more, Maureen! Watching SNL on Saturday reminded me why I haven't watched this show since Mike Myers left. I am a rabid Hugh Laurie fan, so nothing would have made me miss it, but he was so far above the material given him. What a waste of great talent! I can pacify myself with the promise that House will be back on Tuesday night, after a long, painful absence.

I am so with you on this one.
This show has become excruciating to experience.
My girlfriend and I watched the last half after returning from the movies Saturday. She turns to me and says "Does anyone actually think this is funny?". I said I felt sorry for the poor guest hosts that had to pretend to be excited about hosting this thing.

Can you imagine being booked as host, then sitting down for the first read-through? Then knowing damned well that the entire week was going to be like tooth extraction, sans anesthetic?

The show really misses Tina. And I miss Horatio Sans.
Weekend Update sucks in its current incarnation. Sorry Seth, it just doesn't work.

Worst season ever?
Choose one;
a) the first one in 1980 without the groundbreaking originals
b) the Practical Theater leaves Howard Street for SNL
c) this one

Rich, I am a fan of Amy Poehler in the sketches -- even though 90 percent of the sketches she's in are lame. I really think she should go off and have an acting career -- she's really talented as an actress, and it's a waste to trap her in this show.

The thing that kills me is, they always come up with quite a few sketches, then a bunch don't make it in to the final show. So I'm left thinking, these were the BEST sketches they had? There were others that were worse? The mind boggles.

I agree that the material was mostly craptastic. But Hugh Laurie is so insanely talented that there were times he carried it anyway.

His bit with the protest song was **amazing**, and the sketch about the Queen was good too. I was a bit amused that the Shakespeare joke (about his "Bottom") just FLEW over the heads of the vast majority of the audience. (I loved the jab he made with the map he brought out, though.)

But yeah, probably the very funniest thing of the whole night, even more that Laurie, was the Sasha Cohen as "Borat" piece. It reminded me so much of what SNL used to do so well...a few moments reminded me of Belushi doing an Eastern European character. It was very politically incorrect, it made sweeping generalizations and poked fun at stereotypes - and it was pee-your-pants-laughing funny.

It would be cool if we could find a comedic talent who could break from traditions and make something new and interesting, kinda like Beck did with his music. Of course, we can find it - just not on network TV, which is afraid of comedy these days. We'll have to search for it on YouTube.

Comments made by Steve Washington, prove that this "younger" era of comedy has no idea of what truly inspired comedy is. Will Forte funny?.
That nervous guy bit is as thin as a Fredrick's nightgown. But the real problem, Jason Sukdekis.
I heard his uncle George Wendt got him the job after Second City refused to move him onto the Mainstage. He is so out of his league. Everything he is in it appears as if he is entertaining at a Rotary Club function. He has to go.

I haven't watched SNL in YEARS, but through a Beck message board I heard he was going to be on. Since I am a morning person, even on the weekends, I was determined to stay awake for his performance. Unfortunately I missed it. Maybe I can find it on YouTube. Otherwise, there is always another chance to catch him on David Letterman this evening. As for SNL, that show died years and years ago. Probably the best last season was the one that included Mary Gross.

Wow, are you right on! The show was so bad I fast forwarded right thru the Big Mac commercial you mentioned. Wish I hadn't it may have made me laugh. I never doubted my laughter coming when Borat came on. Poor Hugh Laurie, besides Black Adder he is also very well known for his Jeeves and Wooster comedy series and countless other genius comic roles. Too bad SNL has no idea what is funny anymore, or how to use a comic genius.
Amy Pohler needs to get off that show and do some real comedy...like with her husband Will Arnett. Now that would be funny!

sat night live can never be cancelled, some of some of the news shows blow away the old golden cast everbody keeps bringing up. comedy is kind of like war. you have to decide your next move , as far as the intro of last weeks show, it was in bad taste and not funny at all, however the current staff are really good comedians, i like the fat black guy, he is every bit as funny as belushi or murphy, maybe better,amy can change any color at any time, i love it ,tina was kinda sexy but life goes on,i would like to see julian lennon host the show, also lucy woodward would be a great musical guest. as far as mr michaels, i say keep up the good work,..m.franks

Mo, you are absolutely right. Hugh Laurie was wasted by SNL, due, I think to really bad writing. The "ghost-hunter/fart" bit was embarrassingly bad (and not because of the farting); the "queen is coming" bit with Ms. Wiig, worse. Your pointing out the tiredness of the Chris Matthews bit (among others) simply underscores the problem - bad writing. They go back to the "tired and true" because they're coming up short - and they know it. I predict the demise of SNL either this year or the next if they don't overhaul the generally unfunny, untalented cast and get better writers. (why not raid the [former] understaff of "South Park"? Or even the "Simpsons" [although that show has definitely jumped the shark].)

Poor Hugh, who looked remarkably shy and nervous during the monologue. As one reader of yours pointed out, his "Bottom" joke was lost on the audience, as was the USA map one. Maybe the audience has something to do with how bad SNL is right now. On the other hand, they don't have much to hope for sitting in the audience.

I agree this season is lacking but Sudeikis is the least of SNL's problems. First the 'Two A-holes' sketch is subtle and inspired even though it always goes on two long. Much like Kristen Wiig (who's astonishing) he's a good utility performer much like Garett Morris (quick name a sketch he was in or Tim Kazurinski or Billy Crystal I could go on). The problem with most comedy viewers today is if it's not an impression of someone famous then they tend to not participate as an intelligent viewer. Not to say that there aren't great impressionists(Darrell Hammond, Bill Heder-best Pacino & Price I’ve ever seen), but that can't fill out a cast and show when you've got to program 60+ minutes and keep the tweenies happy. If it's an abstract piece it requires greater viewer involvement and the fact that we resist that relationship is another discussion. If SNL wrote solely for the familiar (impressions and re-treds of successful sketches) then it contradicts it's purpose to instigate and challenge as all great comedy tries to do. I'm not forgiving Lorne for making a mess out of what is his legacy but having seen many of these performers and writers before they got to SNL I can say there is something about that show that changes performers. The venue isn't always a good vehicle for talent (Rob Riggle seems to have enormous potential as displayed on TDS) Amy, Seth & Jason are top notch improvisers and I've seen them hold a hostile audiences' attention many a night which is very, very hard to do but we that skill doesn’t transmit on HD, and George Wendt could probably get you an audition but you've got to back it up. There is WAY too much competition to get on stage for them to make a very high value casting choice as a favor to a Second City alum.
Not to say there isn't an quality issue for the show in general but putting together entertainment is chemistry not physics and to be a connoisseur of comedy you must recognize the success or failure of shows of SNL's ilk rarely rests on the shoulders of one performer, and like many of SNL's sketches I may have run too long.

Preach it, Mo. SNL is a steaming pile of poo.
Tuned in for Hugh Laurie, who, while mostly wasted, unsurprisingly didn't embarrass himself. Borat? Rocked. Possibly the best moment was at the very end when those two kissed each other's cheeks and then Borat dropped to his knees and kissed Hugh's... oh yes, he did. First unpredictable thing I saw all night.
The cast, with the probably exception of Amy, have their tickets punched to DisappearsVille when this thing is mercifully put to sleep. Which could not happen soon enough.

SNL may not be blowing people's minds, but it will happen. Sudeikis is not "out of his league". He's a Chicago kid who lit up the stages here in Chicago for a number of years. If you've had the chance to see him perform live, you agree with me. SNL is tough. Everyone always makes comparisons to old SNL's, but watch those old shows now. They rarely hold up. And I'm not talking about the "Best of" crap. Watch Season 2 of SNL. It's electric at times, and then flat out bad.

I think the whole "Borat" think is incredibly unfunny. Not only that, but it's one of the cheapest ways to get a laugh. Making fun of people because they aren't as "smart" and "sophisticated" as we are? Oh, yeah, that's clever comedy right there. I'm not saying that it should never be done, but to rely on it as much as Cohen does is ridiculously lame. It's pandering to the lowest common denominator of the audience. The stupid character worked for Steve Martin mainly because he wasn't poking fun at a specific group. He was satirizing a general idea. To me, having Cohen on the show is what sunnk it to a new low.

Maybe they all realized they couldn't do better than the MadTV parody of "House" which featured Michael McDonald, and was hilarious.

And nothing about that entire show made me laugh - not Laurie's opening monologue, not his folk ditty, not Borat. Not the giant bale of Kazakhstani women's pubic hair. Not Amy Poehler. Nothing was funny.

I spent Saturday night watching "Monty Python" on my local PBS station. It's much better than the drivel on "SNL" these days. I prefer Amy Poehler's work with the Upright Citizens Brigade over SNL. I have been underwhelmed by the cast for many seasons, and I could be considered part of the "younger" generation. My one hope is that Alec Baldwin can save the November 11 episode.

Hmmm... so by this assessment the previous years of cricket chirping shows *were* funny? I didn't see this show, but I did see the season opener & it was worthwhile. BTW - WU w/Tina Fey sucked. Her jokes were almost always only funny to her. The sight of her laughing into the face of silent audiences was repetitive enough to be a mantra for her WU stint.

The ghost fart sketch was one of the funniest things I've seen on television in years. The rest of the show, especially the Borat commercial posing as a sketch, was mediocre at best. Then again, isn't that was sketch comedy is...hit and miss?

This season of SNL is weaker than has been seen in many years. Very few highpoints to this episode or the season opener. I was surprised that SNL could so blatly promote an NBC Universal movie with their opening monologue. Why would I want to watch a five minute commercial?

Gee, I thought I was the only one who thought SNL was awful! Once in awhile, I'll catch some of the older shows on E! Entertainment and those shows are hysterical! Current cast can't hold a candle to the cast SNL had just a couple of years ago.

And Poor Hugh! I looked forward to Saturday's show all week thinking it will be brilliant with him as the host! His immense talent was totally underutilized!! Compared to the current SNL cast, Hugh, even underutilized as he was, made this cast all look extremely untalented, kind of like "comedy kareoke camp" for "comedy wannabes". The writing was bad, kind of like "Studio 60"!

I'm certainly not going to stand up and fight for it, but I actually found this SNL not all that painful to watch. More attempts at topical political humor, and fewer characters that rely on simply being loud as a substitute for actually learning good delivery.

No, I don't find fart jokes funny, but any of my fellow skeptics who have watched "Ghost Hunters" must have appreciated the insane reviewing and re-reviewing of the strange sound they had captured on tape.

The protest song Hugh sang was in fact a song from his "A bit of Fry & Laurie" series back in the UK in the early nineties. Talk about disappointing... Or perhaps he said better re-use some of my old material that IS funny opposed to the other stuff?

"SNL" is like Second City--everyone's been saying that the show's not as good as it used to be ever since the 2nd season. And what the cut-down-to-an-hour cable reruns allow us to conveniently forget is that the show has always been erratic and has always tended to go downhill sometime after Update. (You try to write 55 minutes of killer material a week in two days.)

I've long held these two ways to solve it:

1. Instead of writing the show as if it's still 1976 and everyone's hopped up on pharmaceuticals, divide the writing staff up and give them a long lead time to write a show like two or three weeks. (The Update writers, of course, won't be following this.) It might be a force to come up with more creative material.

2. Give up, make "Update" a half-hour at 10:30 and revive "Night Music" at 11. Both shows are still live from Studio 8H, but there's a lot less material to have to come up with.

SNL is a shadow of it's former self and has been for years. The last time I remember anything remotely creative and funny on that show was when Phil Hartman had graced it with his presence. People keep watching it with the hope it will get another Bill Murray or Steve Martin. Nobody on the show, especially the writers, have been able to recreate the humar of that era. Not Adam Sandler, not Will Ferrell, and certainly not Tina Fey or Will Forte.

I ended up taping SNL just so that I could watch the Hugh Laurie bits and fast-forward through the rest of SNL as it was so lame. I thought I would bust a gut when I watched his monologue yesterday morning. Laugh out loud funny! I think I scared my cats! I was watching the skits in between the 10-hour House marathon that USA network aired yesterday from noon on. Great stuff. Just such a weird disconnect to watch House and then to know that he his so British. Keep up the good work Mo!

Let's face it - SNL has been totally LAME for several years. I like sophomoric humor as much as the next person, but the stuff they do now is hardly worthy of a grade school playground. In fact, the only really funny and creative groups have been Aykroyd/Belushi/Chase/Curtin/Morris/Newman/Radner and Carvey/Farley/Hartman/Myers.

I have missed all episodes of SNL this season, and maybe I'm lucky I have for good reasons, yet I found time to download Borat's SNL opening 10/28. Lorne Michaels truly let Borat loose (like one of Borat's countrywomen...SCHWING!!!) provided he did not cuss. As for the multiple crude sexual and anatomical references, you know the tepid, milquetoast, conservative SNL (versus the far edgier and to me funnier comedy of Mad TV) writers (yes I'm talking to you Seth "I'm so good looking that's why I deserve the plum head writer and Weekend Update cohost spot, plus I could just let my shirtlessness and boy-next-door looks do the acting like I've done the past few seasons." They got rid of Horation Sanz and Chris Parnell, admittedly not exactly runway model types but whose impersonations and originial characters (Sanz's Carol, Parnell's Apallachian short shorts-wearing trailer trash), and kept the utterly bland Haider, Samberg, Sudeikis, Meyers, etc. who for the most part coast by on their charm[lessness].

First off, SNL has been atrocious, IMHO, since Will Farrell left. Jimmy Fallon was terrible, Tina Fey was terrible, Horatio Sans was pretty awful, I could go on and on. But let me be the first to say that the mid nineties into early 2000's probably had one of the best casts and greatest collection of skits. There have certainly been many high's and low's for this show, but without fail, even during the lean years you could see some talent in individual performances or characters. Somehow, that just does not exist anymore with this show, nor has it for at least 3-4 years.

Sometimes I'll catch re-runs of In Living Color, Kids in the Hall, etc, etc. Without question those shows absolutely blow any recent SNL shows completely out of the water. The talent level, writing quality, satire, etc are heads and tails above this current garbage that SNL is churning out.

I had this fleeting thought several times on Saturday night: Why would anyone in the studio audience be laughing at this? Many (if not all) skits got way more laughter than they should have.

I wondered if SNL was "sweetening" the laughter, and of course I have no proof that they did. But still, someone else wondered the same thing about Saturday's broadcast (this link came via tvbarn.com):

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